![]() ![]() The taproom also serves food, including appetizers, burgers, sandwiches and salads. Jetti says that a drinking tab will run on average $8 to $10 per pint, though it could go higher. The tap list is always subject to change, but on a recent visit, the offerings included a grapefruit shandy (a citrus-beer mixture), a sour designed to evoke a gin cocktail with cucumber and mint, a chocolatey porter named after a Hitchcock movie, and a stout that features milk sugar. They have San Jose’s Umunhum Brewing as well as beers from Dogfish Head Craft Brewery out of Milton, Delaware. River Rock’s tap list reads like a curated tour of small, indie brewers, many from the Bay Area and several from other spots across the U.S. My customer wants something new, something different.” ![]() “I don’t have those kinds of beers here,” says River Rock’s owner, Venkaiah C. Those who love their Sierra Nevada or Blue Moon or Goose Island would probably be happier elsewhere. The concept lends itself to adventure, which means, at least at River Rock, there aren’t many familiar brand names. Drinkers are charged by however much they pour. The customer can then wave the wrist band near the sensor beside every tap and then pour a pint, a half pint or just a taste. Each tap contains information about each particular beer. Here’s how it works: Customers show a valid ID and credit card and get a wristband in return. There’s even red and white wine, cider and a single tap of kombucha. There’s a beer with more than 11 percent alcohol by volume, and another that comes in at about 4 percent. With no bar or bartender, beer lovers pay by the ounce and may sample as much, or as little, as they want from a dizzying variety of brewsfrom light to dark, sour to porter. River Rock, located on Murphy Avenue in downtown Sunnyvale, is part of the latest trend in beer-craft technology, allowing patrons to serve themselves from 40 taps displayed at eye level along one wall. What came to gas stations and buffet restaurants decades ago has finally come to brewpubs: self-service. There’s no waiting for a server or committing to a pint they might be uncertain about. Photo by John Dykeįor a certain kind of adventurous beer drinker, places like River Rock Taproom in Sunnyvale represent a great leap forward for humankind.įinally, they can follow their curiosity up and down a beer menu, try something unusual, take a drinking buddy’s recommendation, evenif they’re willing to face the disapproval of the entire beer-nerd universemix a splash of triple IPA with, say, a swallow of chardonnay. ![]() SELF SERVE: At Blast & Brew in North San Jose, customers can pour their own beers. ![]()
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